NFL spokesman Greg Aiello mentioned that Doty’s ruling on Vick’s bonuses was upheld in large part because the 8th Circuit found the contract’s forfeiture language ambiguous.

The ruling allows the Philadelphia Eagles backup Quarterback to keep more than $16 million in roster bonuses from the Atlanta Falcons.  The court claimed that Vick had already earned the bonus money before he was convicted of federal dog fighting crimes and the money was NOT subject to forfeiture laws.

Vick could certainly use the additional money to help pay off creditors and start over now that he is back on the playing field.  He is set to earn  $1.6 million from the Eagles this year with a team option for the second year at $5.2 million.

Obviously the NFL was not happy about the appellate court’s decision to agree with Judge Doty’s previous ruling.  Doty has handled NFL cases including Collective Bargaining Agreement (CBA) matters for years.  However, after his first decision in this case, the NFL began accusing the Judge of being biased and attempted to end his oversight of its contract with the players union.

Unfortunately, after the decision that the 8th circuit handed down, it looks like the relationship between the NFL and Judge Doty will continue a bit longer.

What: Panel: The Impact of Social Networking on the Sports World, Presented by the New York State Bar Association’s Entertainment, Arts and Sports Law Section

When: Tuesday, November 17, 2009 (8:30 a.m. – 10:30 a.m.)

Where: Herrick, Feinstein, LLP, 2 Park Ave., New York, NY (14th floor amphitheater) / map

Moderator: Matthew D. Pace, Herrick, Feinstein LLP

Panelists:

• Lawrence Epstein, EVP and General Counsel, Ultimate Fighting Championship
• Jeffrey Gewirtz, SVP & General Counsel, NETS Basketball/Brooklyn Sports & Entertainment
• Steven Herz, Founder and President, If Management
• Elizabeth Matthews, EVP & Deputy General Counsel of MTV Networks

Discussion: How social networking is impacting the business of sports today from the perspective of copyright owners, distribution partners and athletes.

• How are Leagues, Teams and Athletes using social networking to promote themselves and their products?
• What are the risks associated with use of social networking platforms?
• Who controls the ownership of content — the League, the Team or the individual?
• Is this strictly promotional or is there a business model to monetize this?
• Does this impact the League news policies? Does this impact on the exclusivity of television agreements?
• Does this fall within a news exception or other fair use category? How would that affect copyright owners?
• How does the DMCA operate in this area, and how does it affect copyright owners? Is there law comparable to the DMCA in international markets?
• Can the fan in the stands capture photos or video and distribute them electronically to those outside the stadium?
• Does this, or real-time scores and blogs pose a threat to the content owners’ rights?
• Relevant cases – Mark Cuban’s position against bloggers, Olympics blogging policy, Viacom v. YouTube and Google, New York Rangers vs. NHL

Cost: Students can attend for free.  New York State Bar members pay $25.  Nonmembers have to front $35.  Click here for more information and to register.

What: 2010 Tulane Law School National Baseball Arbitration Competition

When: January 22-24, 2010

Where: Tulane University Law School. Map.

The Tulane Law School Sports Law Society has been busy inviting law schools to compete in the 2010 Tulane Law School National Baseball Arbitration Competition. I received an email invite last week, asking if my school (University of Florida Levin College of Law) would be interested in attending.

The Baseball Arbitration Competition is a simulated salary arbitration competition modeled closely on the salary arbitration procedures used by Major League Baseball.  Each team will represent either the assigned player for that round or the team for which that player plays. The goal of each round is to determine the salary for that player for the upcoming season by persuading the arbitrator(s) that the position advocated for is more appropriate.

The competition assumes that each party has previously submitted their final offer, and that good faith negotiations have concluded.  Each problem will include these final offers; the competitors’ objective is to persuade the independent arbitrator, through both a written submission and through oral arguments, that the offer tendered by their client is the most appropriate compensation for that player.  Players used for this competition will, barring unforeseen circumstances, be actual Major League Baseball players eligible for salary arbitration in that year.

The deadline for registration is 5:00 p.m. on December 15.

Cost: $150 per team (2-3 people per team. Only 2 people may participate in any single round).  Schools may bring up to 2 teams.  Click here to register.

Competition Website | Competition Rules

Sports Business

• “Take the opportunity to meet as many people as you can.” [Sports leaders explain the key to success]
• A sign that lacrosse is growing in the U.S.? [MLL, NLL lacrosse star John Glynn signs with agent Matthew Norfolk]

Baseball

• Even if they don’t make it in baseball, they may make some good money off of the rights fees [Story Of Indian Pitchers Bought By Sony].
• All because of a misunderstanding [Sports Law Blog's Joe Rosen Signs Red Sox Reliever Hideki Okajima as Client].
• That Vernon Wells contract… [Bad Contract Swap Meet].
• A great read for players, parents, scouts, and advisors [Showcases Have Turned Baseball Into A Year-Round Sport].

Football

• Keep your mouth shut and your tweeting at bay [The Cost of Larry Johnson’s Gay Slur on Twitter: $213,000].
• The UFL vs. CFL portion is a good read [Sports Agent Corner: UFL vs CFL, “Runners”, and the Stay-or-Go Debate].

Also, one last note.  Buffalo Wild Wings is hosting a cool contest.  Register to win a roster spot to play in an exclusive football game at Raymond James Stadium in Tampa, Florida, this spring.  You can register at any Buffalo Wild Wings location through November 8 (no purchase is required). The winners will be selected November 18 and will receive round-trip airfare and hotel accommodation for the February 13 game, among other prizes. The winners will be split into two teams and given celebrity coaches (ESPN’s Mike Golic and Mike Greenberg) and captains (Jerome “The Bus” Bettis and Marshall Faulk).

They also want me to share a coupon with you, which is good until November 1 (yeah, not much time to use it).  You can print this page (there is a button to do that on the top of this post), to use the coupon.

Wow, that was a long paragraph.  But after almost 2 1/2 years of law school, I can now confidently say that I will graduate with a better understanding of the best practices in representing talent, and that I will have an edge over my counterparts who never put in the 3 years to attain a J.D.  I did not write that statement with the intention of denigrating anyone’s intellectual capacity, and there are plenty of amazing sports agents who have had tremendous success in scrupulously representing their clients.  However, I do believe that there is a lot to gain by going to law school, especially in the realm of learning how to effectively negotiate (which really cannot be learned by just reading a book).

There are a lot more sports agents (A LOT MORE) than there are General Managers in their respective sports.  While not every agent has had the proper education necessary to effectively negotiate on behalf of his client, you better believe that every GM knows every trick in the book, whether it be from formal education or years and years of experience.  Mark Warkentien, VP of Basketball Operations for the Denver Nuggets, is one of those expert negotiators.  During Summer, he spent a week at Harvard Law School in order to enlarge his arsenal of negotiation tools, and shared some of his wisdom with Ian Thomsen of SI.  Some important points he talks about are:

• The need to know what your counterpart is going to say before you sit down at the negotiating table.
• Find points of agreement before starting the negotiation.
• Make your counterpart justify his interests and positions.
• Face-to-face negotiations beat phone/email/fax conversations.
• Showing emotion often does not help you in progressing your position.
• Be flexible in negotiations.
• Don’t talk down to your counterpart.
• Never use the word “but”.

I have learned all of those bullet points, minus the very last one.  However, it is definitely an interested point, and one that I may take into consideration when altering my own negotiating style.  This is how Warkentien describes Harvard Law School’s justification for scrapping the word “but” from negotiations:

“When you say, ‘I hear what you’re telling me, but …’ what you’re really saying is, ‘Go to hell.’ That word — ‘but’ — comes across as if everything the other guy has just said doesn’t matter.”

As a side note, I will be speaking at Barry University School of Law exactly a week from today.  If you are in Orlando, please join the discussion next Monday at 12 p.m.  Contact Thomas M. Schoendorf for more information.

Gabe Feldman fears that granting the NFL single entity status will led to the league acting in an anti-competitive manner.  He believes that the Seventh Circuit’s decision should be overturned in this case and that no professional sports league should ever be labeled a a single entity.

I suggest that you have a background on the actual American Needle case before reading Feldman’s article, which is the first link on this post.  Also, make sure you section off some time, because Feldman’s piece is not a quick read.  For prior SAB posts on the topic:

• The NFL Is Entangled In An Antitrust Action
• Supreme Court Grants Cert For American Needle
• What The Supremes Should Be Thinking When They Review American Needle

Bosh, who is known to be an avid user of social networking sites such as Facebook and Twitter, and has operated his own YouTube channel since 2007, was looking to expand his web presence with his own site. He then learned that someone had beaten him to the punch and had already registered his name, chrisbosh.com. He settled for chris-bosh.com, but chose to pursue legal action to retrieve his domain.

Bosh’s legal counsel, Winston & Strawn LLP, was able to track down the owner of chrisbosh.com, Luis Zavala. Zavala’s company, Hoopology.com was displaying ads using Bosh’s name to generate revenue without Bosh’s knowledge or consent. Zavala also had registered over 800 domain names of NBA players as well as international, college and high school athletes, with the intention of selling them back to the athletes at a premium, a practice known as “cybersquatting.” It was determined that Zavala was in violation of the Federal Anti-Cybersquatting Consumer Protection Act, and as a result of Zavala failing to show in court, Judge Florence-Marie Cooper awarded Bosh the rights to chrisbosh.com as well as $120,000 in damages. As a means to recover some of the damages, Bosh was also awarded all of the domain names registered to Zavala.

Bosh is offering to return all the domain names to their rightful owners, free of charge, through his web media firm: Max Deal Technologies. Max Deal is a web design, marketing and consulting company that “offers web design and technology consulting to clients who demand to stay current with the fast paced world of online communication.”

Ever the entrepreneur, Bosh stated, “I am thrilled that I am able to offer the return of these domain names to a host of other athletes and celebrities whose names were cybersquatted. I will offer the return of the domain names free of charge, but I’d also love the opportunity to show their owners how Max Deal can help.”

Not only does Chris Bosh retrieve your domain name from individuals looking to illegally profit from it, but he returns it to you free of charge and then offers you advice on what to do with your newly rescued domain. However, we have to assume that Max Deal’s advice will not be free of charge.

You can view a list of all 800+ domain names turned over to Chris Bosh here.

Ashwin Krishnan (Editor-in-Chief) and Josh Podoll (Submissions Editor) at the Harvard Journal of Sports and Entertainment Law (JSEL) are currently soliciting and reviewing submissions for the very first edition of its Journal.  Their plan is to publish the inaugural issue of the Journal in Spring 2010 and they believe that you kind people reading this blog might have written just the type of piece they are looking for.

JSEL will provide the academic community, the sports and entertainment industries, and the broader legal profession with scholarly analysis and research related to the legal aspects of the sports and entertainment communities.  The Journal is accepting articles, essays, book reviews, notes, and comments regarding legal and/or public policy issues from academics and legal practitioners for its upcoming inaugural issue.  JSEL is one of the few journals in the United States that focuses exclusively on legal topics related to sports and entertainment.

Legal topics that affect sports and entertainment include antitrust law, civil procedure, constitutional law, contract law, corporate law, copyright law, labor law, and real estate law.  In addition, there are many other legal topics that have an impact on the sports and entertainment industries, or otherwise have an application to sports and entertainment.

Submissions are being accepted on a rolling basis.  To be considered for the first issue, please send completed submissions no later than November 15, 2009.  The editors also made a point to note that an indication of your interest before that date would be greatly appreciated.

All submissions must be sent to Josh Podoll, Submissions Editor, as an attached Microsoft Word document via email to jselsubmissions@gmail.com.  Also, please feel free to contact Josh regarding any questions you may have concerning citation format, topic, or other issues involving the submissions process.

The entire Q&A segment may be read by clicking here.  Below is one question and answer provided free of charge.

3. In what ways can other sports marketing companies turn their blogs into business opportunities?

Many aspects of the sports industry are closed off to a large segment of the worldwide population.  And unsurprisingly, there are a lot of people hungry for more knowledge about what goes on behind the scenes in the business of sports.  People do not only reserve an interest about sports agents, sports law, and sports business, which are the three areas we cover the most at SportsAgentBlog.com.  Unfortunately, no matter how many Sports Management classes you take in school, you will leave unsatisfied and with a desire to learn more.

Sports marketing companies can benefit from adopting a model based on openness and transparency.  It will allow them greater access to potential innovative interns, spur additional relationships with members of other companies who come across the blog, strengthen the company’s image as a knowledgeable source within its niche, and bounce ideas off of its readers, who end up being the consumers of the produced marketing material.

School is about to start back up across the nation, which means that many law schools will start to announce their Sports Law Symposiums for the Fall and Spring semesters.  Yesterday, I received an email about Marquette University’s 2009 Conference.  Marquette is home of the National Sports Law Institute, one of, if not the, most respected Sports Law programs in the United States.  Here are the details:

What: Conference on The Evolution of Sports Law and Business from the 20th to the 21st Century

When: Friday, October 23, 2009 (8:30 am to 5:30 pm)

Where: The Alumni Memorial Union on the Marquette’s campus

Cost: Register here.  General admission = $150.  Members of the National Sports Law Institute = $99.  Marquette University Law School alumni = $75.  Members of the Sports & Entertainment Law Section of the State Bar of Wisconsin = $110.  Marquette University students and faculty = FREE.  Law students from any other law school = $50.

Panels & Participants:

High School Sports
Moderator:

• Matt Parlow, Associate Professor of Law, Marquette University Law School, Milwaukee, WI

Panelists:

• John S. Black, General Counsel, National Federation of State High School Associations, Indianapolis, IN
• Doug Chickering, WIAA Director Emeritus, Wisconsin Interscholastic Athletic Association, Stevens Point, WI
• Janis K. Doleschal, Retired Commissioner for Sports and Athletics, Milwaukee Public Schools, and Sports Law Consultant, Law Offices of Jacques Mann & Start Playing Safe, Milwaukee, WI

Gender Equity, Torts and Sports Officiating Law
Moderator:

• William Miller (L’96), Assistant Professor, Health, Exercise Science & Sport Management, University of Wisconsin – Parkside, Kenosha, WI

Panelists:

• Paul Anderson (L’95), Associate Director, National Sports Law Institute and Adjunct Professor of Law, Marquette University Law School, Milwaukee, WI
• Timothy Davis, John W. & Ruth H. Turnage Professor of Law, Wake Forest University School of Law, Winston-Salem, NC
• Barry Mano, President, National Association of Sports Officials, Racine, WI

College Sports
Moderator:

• Steve Cottingham, Director of Athletics, Marquette University, Milwaukee, WI

Panelists:

• Elsa Kircher Cole, Vice President of Legal Affairs/General Counsel, National Collegiate Athletic Association, Indianapolis, IN
• Shawn Eichorst (L’95), Executive Associate Athletic Director, University of Wisconsin, Madison, WI
• C. Peter Goplerud, Dean and Professor of Law, Florida Coastal School of Law, Jacksonville, FL
• Kathryn Statz (L’00), Associate Athletic Director, Varsity Sports, DePaul University, Chicago, IL

Professional Sports
Part One:
Moderator:

• Casey Coffman, Chief Operating Officer, Hicks Sports Group LLC, and Executive Vice President, Hicks Holdings LLC, Dallas, TX

Panelists:

• Mary K. Braza, Partner, Chair, Sports Industry Team, and Member, Management Committee, Foley & Lardner LLP, Milwaukee, WI
• Jim McKeown, Partner, Chair, Antitrust Practice Group, Foley & Lardner LLP, Milwaukee, WI
• Phoebe Williams (L’81), Associate Professor of Law, Marquette University Law School, Milwaukee, WI

Part Two:
Moderator:

• Matthew Mitten, Professor of Law and Director, National Sports Law Institute of Marquette University Law School, Milwaukee, WI, and Member, Court of Arbitration for Sport, Lausanne, Switzerland

• Martin J. Greenberg (L’71), Managing Partner, Greenberg & Hoeschen, LLC, Chair of the Board, Wisconsin Sports Foundation, and Member, Southeast Wisconsin Professional Baseball Park District, Milwaukee, WI
• J. Gordon Hylton, Professor of Law, Marquette University Law School, Milwaukee, WI, and Visiting Professor of Law, University of Virginia, Charlottesville, VA
• Irwin P. Raij, Partner, Regulatory Industries Department, Member, Public Affairs and Real Estate Practices, and Vice Chair, Sports Industry Team, Foley & Lardner, Washington, D.C.

Olympic/International Sports
Moderator:

• John P. Collins, Partner, Collins & Collins, Chicago, IL

Panelists:

• Gary Johansen, Associate General Counsel, NGB and Athlete Affairs, United States Olympic Committee, Colorado Springs, CO
• Richard McLaren, Professor of Law, University of Western Ontario, London, Ontario, Canada, Counsel to McKenzie Lake Lawyers LLP, and Member, Court of Arbitration for Sport, Lausanne, Switzerland
• James Nafziger, Visiting Boden Professor, Marquette University Law School, Milwaukee, Wisconsin, and Thomas B. Stoel Professor of Law and Director, International Law Programs, Willamette University College of Law, Salem, OR
• Michael Straubel (L’82), Associate Professor of Law and Director, Sports Law Clinic, Valparaiso University School of Law, Valparaiso, IN